'Crash' stuns by winning best picture

Beats out 'Brokeback'; Hoffman, Witherspoon best actors

By

RussBritt

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) - The movie "Crash" stunned Hollywood by taking the top prize at the 78th Academy Awards Sunday, as the complex tale of race relations in Los Angeles bested "Brokeback Mountain" for the best picture Oscar.

"Crash's" victory marked a coming of age for upstart independent studio Lionsgate Entertainment
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"Crash" won in a year where politically charged and controversial films dominated the awards season landscape.

"Brokeback" was expected by many to take the best-picture prize. The story of two gay cowboys, that had grown in legend in recent months as the subject of late-night talk show fodder, had won a number of top honors leading up to the Oscars.

The film also won several of the Oscars it was expected to take, winning for best director Ang Lee, best adapted screenplay and best original score.

"I wish I knew how to quit you," Lee told the audience as he accepted the award, quoting a near-iconic line from the film and seeming to pave the way toward the best-picture statuette for "Brokeback."

But "Crash" pulled off the upset moments after Lee's speech. While it left many shocked, its victory might not have been a surprise for others as the film won the Screen Actors Guild award in January for best ensemble. Actors comprise by far the largest voting body of the Academy.

Real-life characters won the top acting prizes as Philip Seymour Hoffman took the best actor prize for his role as idiosyncratic author Truman Capote in the film "Capote." Hoffman had captured most other honors leading up to the Oscars, for the story of how Capote compromised his journalistic integrity to write "In Cold Blood."

Reese Witherspoon was named best actress for her portrayal of country singer June Carter Cash in the film "Walk the Line." The production from News Corp.'s Twentieth-Century Fox
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was snubbed for best-picture nominations.

Little box-office splash

In a year where audiences mostly stayed away from theaters, none of the top nominated films had made a significant impact at the box office.

"Crash's" victory is perhaps a fitting end to Hollywood's dismal 2005, in which sales and attendance were down markedly. By winning best-picture honors, "Crash" won't help the box office as the film already is out on home video.

"Brokeback Mountain" had been the strongest performer in theaters, but had made a paltry $79 million through Sunday. The film was made by Focus Features, a unit of General Electric Co.
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and had garnered eight nominations.

"Crash" was next best in big-screen revenue, bringing in $55.4 million during its run last summer. That film is now out on home video. It had taken six nominations and won two other Oscars for best original screenplay and film editing.

The other best-picture nominees, "Good Night, And Good Luck" "Capote" and "Munich" have made $30.3 million, $23.4 million and $46.1 million, respectively, at the domestic box office. "Good Night," is from Warner Bros.
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Warner Independent Pictures, Capote was made by Sony Corp.'s
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Sony Pictures Classics.

"Munich" was co-produced and distributed by GE's NBC Universal and DreamWorks.

Small, but profitable

But while the films are among the lowest revenue-getters for a group of Oscar nominees, most have proven to be tremendously profitable.

On a scant budget of $6.5 million, "Crash" has returned close to $70 million in worldwide box-office receipts. "Brokeback" has made nearly $118 million worldwide on a $14 million budget.

"Capote," was produced for $7 million while "Good Night's" budget was $7.5 million

Meanwhile, "Munich" is turning into the black after it was feared the Steven Spielberg film would end up being unprofitable. The film cost an estimated $75 million to make and has produced $98.1 million in receipts thus far. Because studios split receipts with theater owners, a film needs to make roughly double its budget to turn aprofit.

There were tinges of Hollywood's own rift with middle America and conservative politics during Sunday's Oscar telecast. Host Jon Stewart, not one to shy away from political issues, cracked a joke about Vice President Dick Cheney's recent episode in which he accidentally shot a hunting partner.

Stewart also made reference to the ongoing war in Iraq, pointing to a large replica of the Oscar statue and saying: "Do you think if we pulled this down, democracy would flourish in Hollywood?"

Stewart's schtick included a number of pseudo-political ads in which contenders are promoted, lending to the political atmosphere.

And real-life incendiary issues made their way into the supporting acting categories where two corporate thrillers won Oscars.

George Clooney was dubbed best supporting actor for his role as Bob Barnes in Warner Bros.' "Syriana." The film takes on the oil industry. Clooney also was nominated for directing and writing "Good Night," itself a politically charged film.

Meanwhile, Rachel Weisz took the supporting actress Oscar for her role as Tessa Quayle, an activist who uncovered corruption among drug companies doing business in African nations before she was murdered.

Rap winner

And for the first time ever, a rap song with a controversial title won an Oscar, "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp" from "Hustle & Flow." The film was produced by MTV Films, a unit of Viacom Inc.
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and the song was made by rap artists Three 6 Mafia.

Among other awards, another relatively low-budget film, "Wallace & Gromit and the Case of the Were Rabbit," took the Oscar for best animated feature. The film, made by DreamWorks Animation
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was produced for an estimated $30 million.

The year was short on notable animated features with no "Shrek" sequel or Pixar
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film on this year's slate. "Wallace & Gromit" made $56.1 million domestically and $182 million at the worldwide box office.

One of the more beloved films of the year, Warner Independent's "March of the Penguins," took the Oscar for best documentary. Chronicling the habits of Antarctic penguins over a brutal winter, the movie made $77.4 million domestically and $106.2 million worldwide.

The year's top-grossing and studio big budget films were largely ignored in the nominations process. Fox's
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"Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith," Walt Disney Co.'s
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"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe," "War Of The Worlds" from Viacom's Paramount unit and Universal's "King Kong" all received nods in technical categories.

"Star Wars," the year's biggest film, was nominated in only one category, for makeup, where it lost to "Narnia."

"Kong," with a reported $207 million budget, took awards in three of the four categories where it was nominated, visual effects, sound editing and sound mixing. The film has returned $543 million worldwide.

Sony's "Memoirs of a Geisha," which tied with "Crash" for the second-highest number of nominations with six, took three Oscars for art direction, costume design and cinematography.

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